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Chicago Discovers Picasso: The Century Behind the Art Institute’s 2013 “Picasso and Chicago.”

FEATURE image: The Art Institute of Chicago hosted the “Picasso and Chicago” exhibition to celebrate the 100-year relationship between the artist and the city. It featured over 250 of Picasso’s works, including paintings, sculptures, and prints, highlighting Chicago’s role as the first American city to showcase his art. PHOTO: “Chicago Art Institute, Picasso and Chicago 01” by Larry Miller is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0.

Chicago played a uniquely important role in the American reception, collecting, exhibition, and public celebration of Pablo Picasso’s art, while the city’s museums, collectors, and cultural institutions helped build one of the strongest Picasso legacies outside Europe.

Armory Show, Art Institute of Chicago, March 24–April 16, 1913.

Armory Show, International Exhibition of Modern Art. The Cubist room, Gallery 53 (northeast view), Art Institute of Chicago, March 24–April 16, 1913. On the long wall are three of seven Picasso artworks included in that landmark exhibition. None are in “Picasso and Chicago” in 2013.

The 2013 exhibition reveals that Chicago was not merely a collector of Picasso’s art but an active participant in shaping his American reputation, fostering a century-long relationship that helped establish modern art within the cultural life of the United States.

By John P. Walsh.

Almost as long as Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) was making his art, there have been bragging rights on the Catalan artist that have come from others. Even 40 years after the artist’s death at 91 years old, media talk in 2013 for Picasso and Chicago, a large art exhibition at The Art Institute of Chicago from February 20 to May 12, 2013, revolves around American collector “firsts” associated with Picasso.

Which institution collected Picasso first? The Art Institute of Chicago in 1923.

Which institution collected Picasso most? The Chicago Renaissance Society by 1930.

Which institution had the first Picasso exhibition? The Arts Club of Chicago in 1923.

Which institution had the first Picasso retrospective? The Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, Connecticut in 1934.

The Art Institute of Chicago is able to put imagination aside and quote itself in Picasso and Chicago. Nearly all of the same inventory of Picasso artwork in this 2013 show were assembled and displayed in the exact same order in a previous exhibition at the museum called Picasso in Chicago held from February 3 to March 31, 1968. According to the museum director writing at that time, that exhibition had been inspired by the dedication of the Picasso sculpture on August 15, 1967, a five-story Cor-10 steel Chicago icon that still stands enigimatically in Daley Plaza. If public attention is what Pablo Picasso craves, then he should have no worries.

Picasso, Nude with a Pitcher, summer 1906.

Above and two below: Pablo Picasso, Nude with a Pitcher, Gósol, summer 1906, oil on canvas, 39 5/8 x 31 7/8 in. (100.6 x 81 cm), Signed, l.r.: “Picasso.” The Art Institute of Chicago. In the summer of 1906, during a working sojourn to Gósol in the Spanish Pyrenees, Picasso painted his mistress and muse, Fernande Olivier (French, 1881-1966).

Picasso Nude with a pitcher summer 1906 Gosol Spain

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Fernande Olivier and Pablo Picasso in 1905 in Paris. Public Domain.

Pablo Picasso, Fernande Olivier, summer 1906. Charcoal, with stumping, on cream laid paper, 610 x 458 mm. Signed recto, lower right, in graphite: “Picasso” (underlined), The Art Insitute of Chicago.

Pablo Picasso, The Two Saltimbanques, 1905, printed and published 1913. Drypoint on ivory wove paper 120 x 91 mm (image/plate); 193 x 129 mm (sheet) The Art Institute of Chicago.

Above: Picasso, Study for “La Coiffure,” 1905-1906. Pen and brown ink, with colored crayons and charcoal applied with stump, over graphite, on blue-gray laid paper 184 x 307 m. Signed recto, upper right, in graphite: “Picasso.” The Art Institute of Chicago.

The pairs of figures are related by both being involved in intimate activities but represent different subjects Picasso studied months apart. One dates from 1905 and the other from 1906. The pair on the right is a study for a major painting, La Coiffure, in The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

There are several excellent reasons to see Picasso and Chicago in 2013 and they don’t always revolve around his art. It is a matter for city pride to know that Chicago possesses within its own collections the breadth of art resources to showcase, in chronological order, this Picasso show comprehensive of every major period. In these tight economic times kudos goes out to museum curators who have effectively displayed a vast amount and range of artwork by Pablo Picasso to produce a blockbuster show. The chronological exhibition of Picasso’s art includes works from The Art Institute of Chicago, The Arts Club of Chicago and The Renaissance Society and is front loaded providing for immediate pleasures.

The visitor is greeted nearly at the door by The Old Guitarist painted by Picasso in 1903-1904—a revered Blue Period painting in the Art Institute—and for the viewer to be edified by its presence is worth any exhibition’s admission price though there was no special exhibition fee beyond the price of general admission to the museum.

Picasso, The Old Guitarist, 1903–1904, oil on panel, 48 3/8 x 32 1/2 in. signed, l.r.: “Picasso.” The Art Institute of Chicago.

If front-loaded, does the rest of the show retain the same high interest? The answer is: yes and no. For all future Picasso shows in Chicago, curators can find several avenues to whittle away at the volume of artwork on display for Picasso and Chicago to present its most interesting parts. That downsizing opportunity intimates this show’s arguable shortcoming: as it displays the Spanish master’s later, increasingly commercial artwork, the Art Institute of Chicago’s 500 Picasso works in all mediums begins to reveal the challenges of building a seamlessly qualitative collection of contemporary art even when the artist is Picasso.

Above: Picasso, Woman with her hair up, 1904, Gouache on tan wood pulp board, 427 x 313 mm, Signed and dated recto, upper left, in blue gouache: “Picasso / 1904.” The Art Institute of Chicago.

Below: Pablo Picasso, Beggar with Crutch, Barcelona 1904, pen, brown ink and colored crayon on paper. The Art Institute of Chicago.

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Above: Crazy Woman with Cats, 1901. Oil on pulp board 17 7/16 x 16 1/16 in. (44.3 x 40.8 cm). Signed. l.r.: “Picasso.” Amy McCormick Memorial Collection, 1942. The Art Institute of Chicago.

In late May 1901 Picasso came to Paris with three weeks to prepare for an exhibition at Vollard’s gallery. The exhibition was arranged by a Catalan dealer who roomed with the 19-year-old Picasso on the Boulevard de Clichy. Crazy Woman with Cats is one of the 64 paintings and several drawings Picasso prepared for the show.

Above: Picasso, Sketch of a young woman (detail), pen and brush and black ink on paper, Paris 1904, gift of Robert Allerton, 1924, The Art Institute of Chicago.

Robert Allerton, a museum trustee since 1918, began to acquire Picasso drawings in 1923 with the sole purpose of donating them to the museum. Sketch of a young woman was Allerton’s first Picasso drawing purchase and museum donation in 1923 purchased in Chicago from Albert Roullier Galleries.

Above: Pablo Picasso. Salomé from the Saltimbanques series. 1905 102B0518 (1)

Above: Picasso, Portrait of a Seated Man, 1905. Black chalk on cream wove paper, laid down on cream Japanese paper, 329 x 216 mm, Signed recto, lower left, in graphite: “Picasso.” Gift of Robert Allerton, 1924. The Art Institute of Chicago.

Above: Picasso, Study of Four Nudes, Paris, 1906-07, black crayon paper, Johnson Family collection.

By the end of 1906 Picasso stopped painting and instead started to fill sketchbooks for a new major composition: Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (1907) today in The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Above: Picasso, Female Nude, 1906. Fabricated Black chalk with graphite and smudging on paper, 31.8 x 23.5 cm. Gray Collection Trust. The Art Institute of Chicago.

Picasso, Two Nudes, Standing, fall 1906 Graphite, with stumping, on cream laid paper 630 x 469 mm Signed verso, upper left, in graphite: “Picasso.” Gift of Mrs. Potter Palmer, 1944. The Art Institute of Chicago .

In the early 1920’s as Chicago started a buying frenzy of Picasso, another young Spanish painter twelve years younger than Picasso arrived into Paris and was immediately overtly critical of the great Picasso’s work at that time. That younger painter was Joan Miró (1893-1983).

Miró’s criticism of Picasso as well as of Henri Matisse (1869-1954)— it was more a kind of disgust—was basically that the pair, once young avant-gardists, were making all their art for their dealer. In other words, the older artists were making contemporary art mainly for the money. Such may be an inherent risk in making art that meets a market demand in that the artist is tempted to, after a fashion, sell-out. Miró knew at first look—and history has proven him basically correct—that the future of contemporary painting no longer rested in Picasso’s hands after about 1920. This is partly the reason why Miró turned to the “nonsense” art of the Dadaists for the future of his own painting.

Keeping Miro’s judgment in one’s mind at Picasso and Chicago one sees that, notable exceptions made, an earlier Picasso painting—from the Blue Period after 1901 to Picasso’s period of synthetic cubism until around 1920—offers cohesive artwork that contains a germ or seed of progress. The art collection in Picasso and Chicago, much of it produced following Miró’s critical judgment of Picasso, shares his problematic.

The Red Armchair of 1931 is hung at what is about the show’s halfway point. At this point, I might have exited. Yet where Miró’s critical judgment lags for me is that Picasso’s art is never incompetent or boring. His art is perceptibly linear and, despite its erotic themes, often contains qualities which satisfy and cleanse an art-hungry eye. Picasso’s art is ever ancient and ever new, and distinctly European. For me, seeing a Picasso connotes a stroll in Paris or feeling a sunburn on the face after revelry and reverie along some Mediterranean coast. Quite readily the show produced these kinds of vicarious experiences for me as i soaked up a plethora of Picasso’s later, lesser work in utilitarian Regenstein Hall.

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Above: Nessus and Deianira, September 22, 1920, Graphite on tan wove paper, prepared with a white ground, signed recto, upper left, in pen and blue ink: “Picasso” (underlined); inscribed upper left, in graphite: “22-9-20.”

Just before leaving Paris in September 1920, Picasso made a series of drawings of the Greek myth of the abduction of Hercules’ bride Deianira by the centaur Nessus. With this, Picasso became fascinated with Greek mythology and continued to make artwork using its themes.

Above: Picasso, Head of A Woman (Fernande), Paris winter 1909-10, brush and gray wash on paper. Private Collection.

Paintings and drawings by Picasso in winter 1909-10 continued to explore Cubism as it related to the human face and figure and its surroundings.

Picasso studio Horta de Ebro summer 1909.

Above: Picasso’s studio at Horta de Ebro (now Horta de San Juan) in Spain between May and September 1909. The painting (at left) of a Head of a Woman is one of the early Cubist artworks in “Picasso and Chicago.”

Picasso, Head of a Woman, summer 1909, Oil on canvas 23 3/4 x 20 1/8 in. (60.3 x 51.1 cm), Winterbotham Collection, 1940.

The painting above dates to one of the most productive and inventive periods of Pablo Picasso’s career, a summer stay in the town of Horta de Ebro (now Horta de San Juan) in Spain, which lasted, with minor interruptions, from May to September of 1909. In these months, Picasso produced a series of landscapes, heads, and still lifes that are among the most highly acclaimed achievements of early Cubism. Fernande Olivier, Picasso’s mistress, was the model for the series of heads that the artist produced at this time.

Below: Picasso, Bust of a Woman, late 1909, Watercolor and gouache on cream laid paper, laid down on buff laid paper, 363 x 278 mm overall; signed recto, lower left, in graphite: “Picasso (underlined)/ 09” Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Roy J. Friedman, 1964. The Art Institute of Chicago.

Above: Head of a Woman (Fernande), fall 1909, bronze, 16 1/8 x 9 7/8 x 10 9/16 in. (40.7 x 20.1 x 26.9 cm), cast 1910, Alfred Stieglitz Collection, 1949.

This work is Pablo Picasso’s first large Cubist sculpture and represents the distinctive physiognomy of Fernande Olivier, who was the artist’s model and mistress from 1905 to 1912. Before making the bust, Picasso produced countless drawings and gouaches to explore the specific form and structure of his subject’s facial features. Her hair is in a coil and a topknot; her bulging jaw; her well-defined depression in the center of her upper lip. The Fernande series’ evolved from an agility of facial expression to fixed signs of its individual features.

Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), Artist and Model, Cannes, July 24, 1933, watercolor and pen and black ink on paper. Gray Collection trust.

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Portrait photograph of Pablo Picasso, 1908.

Below: Picasso, Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, autumn 1910, Oil on canvas, 39 9/16 x 28 9/16 in. (100.4 x 72.4 cm) Gift of Mrs. Gilbert W. Chapman in memory of Charles B. Goodspeed, 1948. The Art Institute of Chicago.

German-born Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler (1884-1979) opened an art gallery in Paris in 1907. In 1908 Kahnweiler began representing Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) and introduced him to Georges Braque (1882-1963). Kahnweiler championed these artists’ revolutionary experiment with Cubism and purchased most of their paintings between 1908 and 1915. Kahnweiler sat for Picasso up to thirty times for this portrait.

Picasso, Head of Harlequin, 1916, The Art Institute of Chicagio. Photograph by author.

Picasso, Harlequin Playing the Guitar, c. 1916, Elden collection.

Above: Picasso, Head of a Woman, 1922, The Arts Club of Chicago, purchased 1926.

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Above: Olga Khokhlova (1891-1955) in Picasso’s Montrouge studio, spring 1918.

Olga married Picasso on July 12, 1918, at the Russian Orthodox Cathedral in Paris. On February 4, 1921, she gave birth to their son Paulo (1921-1975). After that, Olga and Picasso’s relationship deteriorated though they never divorced. Olga died in Cannes in 1955.

Above: Picasso, Still Life, February 4, 1922, Oil on canvas 32 1/8 x 39 5/8 in. (81.6 x 100.3 cm), Dated, u.l.: “4-2-22-.” Ada Turnbull Hertle Endowment, 1953. Picasso produced a series of Cubist still lifes in 1922 that are simplified to flat planes in a patterned framework. Gertrude Stein (1874-1946) bought this canvas in 1923 to add to her collection of more than 30 Picasso paintings and even more of his drawings and watercolors. This still life was Stein’s last purchase of a painting by Picasso. See article in Architectural Digest by Nick Mafi dated July 28, 2020 on the recent discovery associated with the Picasso painting above. https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/famed-pablo-picasso-painting-reveals-abandoned-artwork-beneath

Above: Picasso, Double Flute Player and Reclining Nude, October 22, 1932, pen and ink with brush and black wash and scraping on paper, Shapiro collection, 1992. The Art Institute of Chicago.

Marie-Thérèse Walter and Pablo Picasso. Their relationship began when she was seventeen and Picasso was 45 years old and married to Olga Khokhlova. In late summer and fall of 1932, Picasso and Marie-Thérèse Walter (French, 1909-1977), the artist’s mistress from 1927 to 1935, were together in Boisgeloup. Picasso made three drawings on the same day on a theme of lovers serenading one another.

Picasso transforms the bullfighting theme where the half-man and half-bull Minotaur is the aggressor in the ring terrorizing a horse.

Above: Picasso, Minotaur and Wounded Horse, Boisgeloup, April 17, 1935, Pen and brush and black inks, graphite, and colored crayons, with smudging, over incising, on cream laid paper, 343 x 515 mm Signed recto, lower right, in graphite: “Picasso” (underlined); inscribed upper right, in graphite: “Boisgeloup–17 Avril XXXV” The Art Institute of Chicago.

Above and below: Picasso, The Red Armchair, oil and ripolin on panel; signed, u.r.: “Picasso,” oil and ripolin on panel, The Art Institute of Chicago.

Above: Picasso, Head of Woman (Dora Maar), Paris, April 1, 1939, oil on canvas, 92 x 73 cm. Private collection.

Above: Weeping Woman I, July 1, 1937. Drypoint, aquatint, and etching, with scraping on copper in black on ivory laid paper, 695 x 497 mm (plate); 774 x 568 mm (sheet). The Art Institute of Chicago.

Dora Maar (French, 1907-1997) met Picasso in 1936 at the Café des Deux Magots in Paris. Her liaison with Picasso ended in 1943.

About making portraits of his mistress Dora Maar weeping, Picasso explained: “For years, I’ve painted her in tortured forms, not through sadism and not through pleasure either – just obeying a vision that forced himself on me.” At the end of their relationship Picasso confessed, “I can only see her weeping.”

From left: Dora Maar, Picasso, Lee Miller in 1937.

Picasso, Villa in Vallauris, Vallauris, Feb., 4, 1951, oil on panel. 88.9 x 116.2 cm, The Art Institute of Chicago.

Picasso, large vase with dancers, Vallauris, 1950, red earthenware clay, ground painted in white engobe, 71.2 cm Crown collection.

Picasso and Françoise Gilot (b. 1921) at Madoura pottery, Vallauris, 1953.

Gilot was lover and muse to Picasso from 1943 to 1953. In the early 1990s I met Françoise Gilot accompanied by her husband, Jonas Sauk (1914-1995), when she spoke at the Alliance Française de Chicago. That evening Gilot made it perfectly clear upfront that she was not going to talk about Picasso.

Picasso, Portrait of Jacqueline, Mougins, Dec. 28, 1962, graphite with smudging and black ballpoint pen on paper. 34.9 x 25 cm., Gray Collection Trust.

Picasso, Jacqueline, Cannes or Vauvenargues, October 17, 1959, Linocut in colors on paper, 63.8 x 53 cm., Crown collection.

Jacqueline Roque was muse and second wife of Pablo Picasso. Their marriage lasted 11 years until his death, during which time he created over 400 portraits of her, more than any of Picasso’s loves.

Picasso and Jacqueline, his second wife. Pablo Picasso met Jacqueline Roque (1927-1986) in 1953 when she was 26 years old and he was 72. He romanced her until she agreed to date him. Only in 1955, when Picasso’s first wife Olga Khokhlova died, did Picasso decide to marry Jacqueline in Vallauris in 1961. They were married until Picasso’s death in 1973.

The Chicago Picasso, 1967. In situ in Daley Plaza in Downtown Chicago, Author’s photograph. July 2015.

There are 250 items on display in Picasso and Chicago—including paintings, prints, drawings, sculptures, and ceramics—and only begins to manifest the prodigious genius of Pablo Picasso.

Picasso and Chicago may have closed, but many, if not most, of these works in Chicago’s cultural institutions and private collections can be savored with the simplicity of a museum visit. A visitor can do no better than visit The Art Institute of Chicago and see Picasso’s The Old Guitarist and The Red Armchair. By that begins one’s own new adventure of absorption of the Spanish master’s artwork whose home is Chicago. The 2013 show is over but more than a few of its best parts are on display right now in these institutions’ permanent collections.

SOURCES:

Art Institute of Chicago. Picasso in Chicago. Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1968.

Chicagoist. “Last Chance to See ‘Picasso and Chicago’ at Art Institute.” May 11, 2013. http://chicagoist.com/2013/05/11/last_chance_to_see_picasso_and_chic.php.

D’Alessandro, Stephanie. Picasso and Chicago 100 years, 100 works. Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 2013. Distributed by Yale University Press. http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780300184525.

Mink, Janis. Miró. Cologne: Taschen, 2006.

Michigan Avenue Magazine. “AIC Opens ‘Picasso and Chicago.’” Accessed November 8, 2026. http://michiganavemag.com/living/articles/aic-opens-picasso-and-chicago.

Picasso, Pablo. Je suis le cahier: The Sketchbooks of Picasso. Edited by Arnold B. Glimcher and Marc Glimcher. Boston: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1986. (Note: Originally co-published internationally in cooperation with Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, Verona, Italy).

St. Michael Church in Old Town (1869): European Craftsmanship in Chicago’s Oldest German Parish.

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FEATURE image: At the top of the high altar’s retable in St. Michael Church in Chicago’s Old Town is the figure of St. Michael the Archangel, the parish church’s patron. St. Michael is mentioned in several places in both the Hebrew and Christian scriptures. The near northside Chicago parish has been administered by the Redemptorist Order since 1860. Author’s photograph.

In October 1871, the Great Chicago Fire reduced the surrounding neighborhood to absolute ash. Yet, the stone walls of St. Michael Church remained standing. Built by German immigrants, this Romanesque landmark stands as a literal monument to Chicago’s resilience. If you look closely at the historic brickwork, you can still trace the legacy of the fire. Inside, the structure holds a massive, hand-carved Bavarian high altar and towering stained-glass windows crafted by the renowned Mayer of Munich studio in Germany.

The great tower of St. Michael Church on the Near North Side of Chicago identifies the Old Town Triangle historic district. St. Michael Old Town Chicago. June 2022. Author’s photograph. 8.03mb

By John P. Walsh

The story is told that if you can hear the five 2-to-6-ton bells peel from the 290-feet-tall tower of St. Michael Church you live in Chicago’s Old Town. Yet it depends on which way the wind is blowing.

St. Michael Church is one of Chicago’s oldest parishes and church buildings. It was founded by German Catholics in 1852. From their arrival in the 1830s and 1840s until World War I, German immigrants of all faiths made up Chicago’s most numerous nationality.

The bell tower of St. Michael Church in Chicago’s Old Town at 1633 N. Cleveland Avenue. From 1869 to 1885, this church tower was the tallest building in Chicago. It was surpassed by the old Board of Trade Building.

Saint Michael Old Town Chicago. October 2016. Author’s photograph. 2.31mb DSC_0941 (1)

German immigrants soon migrated out of downtown Chicago and about two miles north to North Avenue. The east-west thoroughfare became known as “German Broadway.”

This European immigrant community expanded to eventually settle a four-mile square area that was called “North Town.” St. Michael Church was situated in the virtual center of North Town on land donated by successful German-born Chicago businessman and brewer Michael Diversey (1810-1869). Diversey had immigrated to the United States in the 1830s from Saarland in western Germany.

Built on land donated by successful German-born brewer, businessman, and Chicago alderman Michael Diversey (1810–1869).

St. Michael Church stands on land donated expressly for the purpose of building it by successful German-American brewer Michael Diversey (1810-1869). Diversey emigrated from Germany in 1830, and by 1844 he was a Chicago alderman. The church is named after the wealthy beer maker’s patron saint, St Michael the Archangel, whose limestone figure stands in the high niche on the façade (see photograph below). Diversey’s so-called Chicago Brewery, first established in Chicago in 1839, grew to become one of the most extensive establishments of its kind in the West.

In 1876, five years after the Great Chicago Fire that ravaged the city, the rebuilt St. Michael Church raised five new bells cast by McShane Company into the tower. The four-sided clock was installed in 1888. Atop the steeple, a twenty-four-foot-tall cross weighs over one ton.

St. Michael Old Town Chicago. June 2022. Author’s photograph. 18.70mb

The church building is built of red brick with limestone trim in the Romanesque style. Construction started in 1866 and was finished three years later. In 1871 the new building was virtually destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire along with its North Town neighborhood. Only the church’s exterior walls remained. Using these existing walls, the fire-gutted St. Michael Church was rebuilt and rededicated in 1873. Ashes from that infamous conflagration can still be seen in the church’s basement.

St. Michael Old Town Chicago. June 2022. Author’s photograph. 11.43 mb

Gabled three-portal main entrance (above) was added to the façade in 1913 by a Chicago architect. The architectural design harkens back to the cathedrals of Europe.

Redecorated for its 1902 Golden Jubilee, the church features extensive European craft, including a 56-foot wood-carved Main Altar by the E. Hackner Company, stained glass by Franz Mayer & Co. of Munich, and a certified 1870 replica of the Mother of Perpetual Help icon that survived the 1871 fire intact.

St. Michael Old Town. Main altar at one end of a 190-foot central nave. June 2022. Author’s photograph. 10.01 mb

The church was gutted by the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, leaving only the exterior red brick walls. It was rapidly rebuilt and rededicated using those same walls in 1873.

St. Michael Church, Chicago. February 2013. Author’s phtograph.

St. Michael Church, Chicago. Main Altar. February 2013. Author’s phtograph.

The Main Altar of the Angels, dating from 1902, is a cacophony of German-style wood carving whose immense weight required the building of its own foundation.

In 1851 when St Michael was founded, Chicago’s total population was around 30,000 making it the twenty-fourth largest city in the United States.

Ten years later, in 1860, right before the outbreak of the American Civil War, Chicago’s population had nearly quadrupled and ranked in the nation’s top ten largest cities.

Chicago’s Catholic Church hierarchy in the middle of the nineteenth century was mostly Irish. These English-speaking bishops relied on religious orders to handle a tidal wave of non-English-speaking immigrants to Chicago, including the Germans.

In 1860, the St. Michael Church parish was entrusted to the Redemptorists, a religious order founded in 1748 in Italy. The Redemptorists with their German congregation built the St. Michael Church in Old Town that stands today. Over 170 years later, the Redemptorist order continues to shepherd the parish.

St. Michael Old Town Chicago. June 2022. Author’s photograph. 14.16 mb

A peaceful, breathtaking sanctuary in the middle of a bustling neighborhood.

**June 2022. St. Michael Old Town Chicago 12.62 mb**

A mosaic of Saint Michael the Archangel (above) in the floor at the entrance of the church. “Archangel” is a title that signifies he is the leader of all God’s angels.

The mosaic of the patron angel in the floor starts the church’s 190-foot-long nave. It is one of the many religious images—others in stone, wood and paint—that constitutes the interior and exterior decoration of St. Michael Church.

St. Michael the Archangel is mentioned four times in the Bible: twice in the Book of Daniel and in the Epistle of Jude and the Book of Revelation. In the Book of Daniel, St. Michael the archangel helps the prophet Daniel and is linked to the “end times” of the world. In the Epistle of Jude, St. Michael the archangel guards the tombs of Eve and Moses and combats Satan to protect these holy sites.

In the Book of Revelation St. Michael and his angels do battle with the “dragon.” In addition to being charged with expelling Satan from Heaven (as depicted in the retable), St. Michael is charged with the care of all departed souls to introduce them to the holy light. St. Michael the Archangel is the patron saint of soldiers, police, and doctors.

St. Michael Old Town Chicago. June 2022. Author’s photograph. 20%

Detail of the Main Altar retable depicts St. Michael the archangel in the traditional iconography of armor with sword and shield casting Satan out of Heaven by God’s command. St. Michael the Archangel is the patron saint of soldiers, police, and doctors.

The spacious, airy, and dramatic church sanctuary today looks basically as it did by 1902. The motivation for the church’s extensive redecoration in 1902 was its Golden Jubilee as well as one expression of the parishioners’ decided prosperity by the later 1890s.

Created and installed by Mayer & Company of Munich for St. Michael Church’s Golden Jubilee in 1902, the tall and thin stained glass windows —the fourth set of windows to be installed into architect August Walbaum’s original design— depicted Biblical and other scenes. The window’s artistic technique drew upon centuries of European craft and design – and were recently cleaned in 2012.

The stunning stained glass was crafted by the famous Mayer of Munich in Germany.

Annunciation to Mary Window (Luke 1: 26-38. St. Michael Old Town Chicago. Annunciation to Mary Window (Luke 1: 26-38). Mary’s virginal conception of Jesus is stated explicitly in verses 34-35. In Hebrew her name, Miryām, means “exalted one.” June 2022. Author’s photograph. 10.71 mb

In that Jubilee year, the stained glass was installed along with the 56-foot-high carved wood retable of the High (or main) Altar of the Angels. Though there are five altars in St. Michael Church, the main altar is the most spectacular, drawing the eye forward and upward from practically anywhere in the church. Crowning this painted construct—which is so heavy that it required a new local foundation to be dug for it—is the figure of St. Michael the Archangel described in the Book of Revelation. The angel is garbed in his panzer (“armor”) running rebellious angels out of heaven. St. Michael is flanked by the archangels Gabriel and Raphael. Nine choirs of angels and the saints Peter and Paul are also depicted in wood. Smaller human figures depict the four evangelists identified by their Christian symbols—specifically, the Winged Man (Matthew), Winged Lion (Mark), Winged Ox (Luke) and Eagle (John). All five altars were made by E. Hackner Company of La Crosse, Wisconsin, an early twentieth century designer, manufacturer and importer of artistic ecclesiastic furnishings.

St. Michael Church, Chicago. Annunciation Window, detail (above), Franz Mayer & Co. of Munich. The angel Gabriel’s greeting, “Hail, full of grace,” is a greeting that is full of peace, joy and wisdom. Mary is the object of God’s grace and favor and is shown to be chosen for a long time past. The depiction of lilies, whether in the angel’s hand or arranged into a bouquet by Mary’s side, is traditional imagery for purity. February 2013. Author’s photograph.

In 1869 the St. Michael Church building cost over $130,000 to build which is approximately $2.65 million today. After the fire the repairs in 1872 cost an additional $40,000 plus unknown amounts of insurance money–or upwards of $700,000 today. Reconstruction did not include the stained glass windows which were installed in 1902. For a history of the stained glass in St. Michael church go to: https://johnpwalshblog.com/2016/05/10/angels-in-stained-glass-1902-complete-st-michael-church-in-old-town-chicago/.

St. Michael Church, Chicago. Anointing of Jesus by Mary Magdalene at Bethany Window, 1902, Franz Mayer & Co., Munich. This stained-glass window depicts the anointing of Jesus at Bethany by the sinful woman traditionally identified as Mary Magdalene. Although the Gospel accounts differ in certain details, all four describe a meal in a house during which a woman pours costly ointment upon Jesus, prompting objections from some of those present. In Mark’s account (Mark 14:3), the ointment is identified as pure nard, a perfume of extraordinary value estimated at more than a year’s wages (Mark 14:5). Luke’s Gospel recounts a woman known for her sinful life who anoints Jesus’ feet while weeping; her tears fall upon his feet, which she then kisses and wipes with her hair (Luke 7:38). While none of the biblical texts explicitly identify this woman as Mary Magdalene, Christian tradition and artistic iconography have long associated her with the figure portrayed in these Gospel narratives. Spikenard was grown in India, China, and Nepal and known in ancient Rome where it was used as a cooking agent. By the time of Jesus, in the early Roman Empire, spikenard was used primarily in perfume. May 2016. Author’s photograph,

Coat of Arms of Pope Francis (2013-2025). According to the Vatican, the image of the plant to the right of the star on the blue background is spikenard and represents St. Joseph.

St. Michael Church, Chicago. Let the Little Children Come to Me Window. During Jesus’ public ministry, crowds frequently gathered around him, bringing not only themselves but also their children and even their infants to receive his blessing. The disciples attempted to turn them away, but Jesus rebuked them. His well-known words, recorded in all three Synoptic Gospels (Matthew 19:14, Mark 10:14, and Luke 18:16), affirm the special place of children in the Kingdom of God: “Let the little children come to me; do not prevent them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.” He continued, “Amen, I say to you, whoever does not accept the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it” (Mark 10:14-15). This stained-glass window commemorates one of the most beloved episodes in the Gospels, emphasizing the humility, trust, and openness that Jesus presented as models of faith. Author’s photograph.

**June 2022. St. Michael Old Town Chicago 12.82 mb**

St. Michael Church, Chicago. Sacred Heart Window. The first of four great visions in which Jesus Christ revealed his Sacred Heart to French nun St. Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647-1690) took place on December 27, 1673, in her Visitation convent in Paray-le-Monial in Burgundy France. In each of these visions Christ revealed messages that the young saint was to communicate. The greatest of all the visions took place in 1676. Before the Tabernacle on the altar that exposed the Eucharist, Jesus said: “Behold this Heart which has so loved mankind, that it has spared nothing, even to exhausting and consuming itself in order to demonstrate and prove its love for them.” St. Margaret Mary was ordered by her confessor, St. Claude de la Colombière, a Jesuit priest, to write down all her visions. Afterwards, the saint suffered great persecutions from the Church and others for these visions until she fell ill and died in 1690 at 43 years old. She was beatified in 1864 and canonized in 1920. Author’s photograph.

**August 2017. Christmas Window (detail). 76% 7.97 mb DSC_0980 (1)**

**August 2017. Ascension Window (detail). 80% 7.74mb DSC_0985**

**August 2017. Jesus at age 12 in the Temple** **(detail). 80% 7.74mb DSC_0985**

The passage describing Jesus at age twelve in the temple appears in Luke 2:41–52, the one place in the canonical Gospels that steps beyond the infancy stories to show him in early adolescence. It offers a rare look at his formative years and stands as the only sustained biblical account of his childhood.

Ceiling mural.

St. Michael Church, Chicago. Central nave ceiling mural includes symbolic depictions of the four evangelists: the Winged Man (Matthew); Winged Lion (Mark); Winged Ox (Luke); Eagle (John). Its filigree evokes medieval illuminated manuscripts and perhaps is inspired by a scene painted in the 15th century in the dome of The Basilica of St Mark in Venice. February 2013. Author’s photograph.

Original Pulpit.

St. Michael Old Town Chicago. June 2022. Author’s photograph. 15.27 mb

This magnificent, elevated pulpit inside St. Michael Church in Chicago’s Old Town is a masterwork of historic liturgical art. While the church building itself was rebuilt immediately after the Great Chicago Fire in 1873, the highly detailed altars and intricate interior wood carvings are largely attributed to the grand 1902 Golden Jubilee renovation by the E. Hackner Company. The design combines elements of Romanesque Revival and Bavarian Baroque styles, relying on theology built directly into the woodwork.

Deep-Rooted Symbolism

The Scallop Shell Canopy: The massive scallop shell serving as the soundboard (abat-voix) holds a double meaning. In Catholic tradition, the shell is the universal symbol of pilgrimage (specifically the Camino de Santiago) and baptismal rebirth. It reminds the listener that the Word being preached guides the soul’s earthly journey.
The Dove of the Holy Spirit: Tacked at the very top underside of the shell canopy is a carved white dove. It is positioned above the priest’s head, symbolizing that the words spoken from this pulpit should be directly inspired by the Holy Spirit.
The Ten Commandments: Directly below the shell, two overlapping tablets showing Roman numerals I through X represent the law given to Moses, rooting the New Testament preaching firmly in Old Testament foundational law.
The Carved Figures: In addition to the two angels holding up the shell, surrounding the octagonal basket of the pulpit are niche carvings depicting prominent Church figures, popes, or bishops—identifiable by their liturgical mitres and croziers—representing the historic lineage, authority, and continuity of Catholic teaching.

St. Michael Old Town Chicago. June 2022. Author’s photograph. 19.11 mb

As with other American church building adaptations of earlier European architectural styles, the use of Romanesque rounded arches and corbels accentuated the use of Gothic-style glass in Chicago’s Old Town Roman Catholic church.

St. Michael Old Town Chicago. June 2022. Author’s photograph. 20%

Pietà, copy of a 16th-century Swabian-style artwork made around 1913.

**June 2022. St. Michael Old Town Chicago 7.8mb 70%.**

This devotional and deeply moving Pietà is in the foyer of St. Michael Church. The foyer (narthex) acts as the boundary between the chaotic, bustling streets of Chicago’s Old Town and the sacred interior of the sanctuary. Encountering the raw vulnerability of the Pietà forces an immediate pause, inviting quiet reflection and reverence. By placing a monument of profound maternal grief right at the entrance, the church sends an unspoken message to its community: bring your sorrows inside. It reassures visitors that the church is a sanctuary for those carrying heavy burdens.

Though the heartbreaking image of the Virgin Mary cradling the dead body of Jesus after the Crucifixion emerged from Late Medieval and Renaissance European devotion, German and especially Swabian Pietàs often emphasized intense human suffering, a devotional sensibility sometimes described as dolorism. Swabia, a historic region of southwestern Germany, was renowned during the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries for its emotionally charged religious woodcarvings, produced by masters such as Michel Erhart and Jörg Syrlin. Unlike Michelangelo’s serene and idealized marble Pietà in St. Peter’s Basilica, these German works frequently stressed the physical wounds of Christ and the overwhelming grief of his mother, encouraging worshippers to contemplate the realities of sacrifice, death, and redemption through an intensely personal and emotional encounter.

Pieta. St. Michael Church, Chicago. February 2013. Author’s photograph.

Emotional Realism

The Sorrow of Mary: Mary is depicted not as a youthful queen, but as a grieving mother. Her face is heavy with sorrow, her head tilted tenderly over her son, and her heavy drapery realistically bundles around her figure, grounding the scene in heavy, earthbound grief.
The Wounds of Christ: The sculpture vividly details the physical toll of the Passion. The spear wound in Christ’s side (the Holy Wound) is prominently visible and painted with realistic blood droplets, a hallmark of Northern European devotional art designed to evoke deep empathy (compassio) from the viewer.

Sacred Heart side altar. The Sacred Heart side altar (east nave). In addition to the central statue of Christ are those depicting Redemptorist Order founder, St. Alphonsus Liguori (Italian, 1696-1787) and Discalced Carmelite Order founder, St. Teresa of Avila (Spanish, 1515-1582). February 2013. Author’s photograph.

St. Michael Old Town Chicago. St. Joseph altar (west nave) with a mural above it of Redemptorists before Christ’s Heavenly throne. In this photograph’s foreground at right is a wood confessional box. Italian-born St. Alphonsus Liguori, founder of the Redemptorists, was highly educated and spent much of his life hearing the confessions of the ordinary people as a home missionary in his city of Naples, Italy. June 2022. Author’s photograph. 25%

**Side altar honors Mary, Mother of Perpetual Help.**

St. Michael Old Town Chicago. The Redemptorists—a Catholic religious order founded in Italy by St. Alphonsus Liguori—became the custodians of this icon long after their founder’s death. On December 11, 1865, Pope Pius IX formally entrusted the original 15th‑century Byzantine icon to the order, handing it to Father Nicholas Mauron, the Redemptorist Superior General in Rome. By April 1866, the original icon was placed on public display at the Church of Saint Alphonsus on Rome’s Esquiline Hill, where it remains permanently enshrined. June 2022. Author’s photograph. 12.53 mb

Following the Pope’s directive to “make her known throughout the world,” the Redemptorists began distributing authorized copies to their missions and parishes. In 1870, one of the first four official copies sent to the United States was dispatched to St. Michael Church in Chicago. Although not placed directly into the pastor’s hands by the Pope, it was a certified first‑generation replica produced under the authority of the 1865 decree.

After the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, the Chicago icon was recovered intact from the rubble—an event taken as a sign to rebuild the church. It was later installed in the present German Baroque‑style retable.

The icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help is regarded as miraculous because of centuries of reported healings, apparitions, and its own improbable survival. In 1798, French revolutionary forces destroyed San Matteo, the church where it had been housed in Rome. Augustinian monks rescued the icon and hid it; it remained forgotten for decades until the 1860s, when an elderly Augustinian friar and a former altar server—by then a Redemptorist priest—identified it.

When the icon was restored to public veneration on April 26, 1866, a major street procession accompanied its installation at Saint Alphonsus in Rome. Contemporary accounts record several immediate physical cures among the crowd. In the decades that followed, the Redemptorists documented hundreds of unexplained medical healings associated with prayers before the image.

Because of this long record of devotion, survival, and reported grace, the Vatican crowned the icon with gold and precious stones in 1867, a distinction reserved for ancient images linked to extraordinary divine favors. August 2017 Author’s photograph. 78% 7.75mb DSC_0981

The Stations of the Cross at St. Michael Church

Second and Third Stations of the Cross. June 2022. Author’s photograph. 12.60 mb

These magnificent high-relief panels depict the Second and Third Stations of the Cross, Jesus Is Laden with the Cross and Jesus Falls the First Time. Installed during St. Michael Church’s extensive late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century decorative campaigns, they are exceptional examples of European-influenced polychrome plaster relief sculpture. Rich in color, depth, and dramatic expression, the panels were created to draw worshippers into a meditative participation in Christ’s Passion, transforming sacred history into a vivid devotional experience.

St. Alphonsus Liguori and the Modern Stations

The fourteen traditional Stations of the Cross found in churches throughout the world today were codified in 1761 by St. Alphonsus Liguori (1696-1787). One of the most accomplished figures of the eighteenth-century Catholic Church, Liguori was a bishop, theologian, philosopher, lawyer, poet, composer, musician, artist, spiritual writer, and founder of a religious order. His reflections on Christ’s Passion became enormously influential because of their ability to move the faithful toward prayer, humility, repentance, and a deeper appreciation of Christ’s sacrifice.

Born in Naples in 1696, Liguori initially pursued a distinguished legal career before discerning a vocation to the priesthood and being ordained in 1726. Though his parents were devout Catholics, they were disappointed by his decision, in part because the clergy of the era often suffered from a reputation for corruption and worldliness. Liguori nevertheless devoted his life to pastoral ministry, becoming especially beloved for his work among ordinary people, spending countless hours hearing confessions and serving as a missionary in and around Naples.

Scholar, Bishop, and Founder

In 1732, Liguori founded the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, better known as the Redemptorists, a religious community dedicated to preaching missions and serving the spiritual needs of ordinary people. His influential work Moral Theology, published in 1748, received papal approbation and helped establish his reputation as one of the Church’s foremost moral theologians. He was appointed a bishop in 1762 and, nearly a century after his death, was declared a Doctor of the Church in 1871, recognizing the enduring value of his theological and spiritual writings.

The Redemptorists and St. Michael Church

The connection between St. Alphonsus and St. Michael Church is more than devotional. In 1860, the parish was entrusted to the Redemptorists, who ministered to Chicago’s growing German Catholic population. Under their leadership, the present church was completed in 1869 in the Old Town neighborhood. Remarkably, it survived the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 and continues to stand as one of the city’s most important historic churches. More than 165 years after their arrival, the Redemptorists remain entrusted with the spiritual care of the parish.

A Living Tradition of Devotion

The Stations of the Cross at St. Michael are therefore more than decorative works of religious art. They embody a devotional tradition shaped by St. Alphonsus Liguori, preserved by the Redemptorists, and passed down through generations of Chicago Catholics. Through their vivid imagery and emotional power, these sculptures continue to invite worshippers to walk spiritually beside Christ on the road to Calvary, reflecting on suffering, sacrifice, redemption, and hope.

St. Michael Old Town. June 2022 5.83mb DSC_5296 (1)

Conclusion

The Rise of German Chicago

The history of St. Michael Church is inseparable from the rise of Chicago itself. In scarcely half a century, Chicago transformed from a frontier settlement built on low, marshy ground into the second-largest city in the United States. As railroads, industry, and commerce propelled the city onto the national stage, German immigrants emerged as one of its most influential communities, shaping neighborhoods, churches, schools, businesses, associations, and civic life.

The Age of Deutschtum

Between the Great Fire of 1871 and the years following World War I, Chicago’s astonishing growth coincided with the flourishing of Deutschtum, or “Germanness.” German-language newspapers, singing societies, breweries, social clubs, educational institutions, and Roman Catholic parishes formed a vibrant cultural world that touched nearly every aspect of urban life. St. Michael Church stood not only as a place of worship but also as an expression of the confidence, prosperity, and cultural identity of German Chicago during its height.

The End of an Era

Yet the prominence of German Chicago proved less permanent than the architecture its community left behind. The defeat of Imperial Germany in World War I unleashed powerful currents of anti-German sentiment across the United States and accelerated pressures toward assimilation. Institutions that had once proudly proclaimed their German heritage increasingly abandoned the language and public expressions of ethnic identity. By the eve of World War II, much of the cultural hegemony that Germans had exercised in Chicago for generations had largely disappeared.

A Lasting Legacy

Although Deutschtum faded as a public cultural force, its legacy remains embedded in Chicago’s built environment. Churches such as St. Michael preserve the artistic, religious, and historical aspirations of the immigrant community that helped transform Chicago from a frontier town into a world city. Their architecture and stained glass stand today as enduring witnesses to the rise, influence, and eventual assimilation of one of the city’s most important ethnic populations.

Saint Michael Old Town Chicago. October 2016. 4.52mb DSC_0836 (5)

Sources:
G. Lane and A. Kezys, Chicago Churches and Synogogues.
P. d’A Jones and M.G. Holli, Ethnic Chicago.
D.A. Pacyga and E. Skerrett, Chicago, City of Neighborhoods.
D. McNamara, Heavenly City.
The Saints: A Concise Biographical Dictionary, edited by John Coulson, Guild Press, New York, 1957.
The New American Bible, Catholic Book Publishing Corp, New York, 1993.
Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2^nd Edition, Doubleday, New York, 1997.
The Jerome Biblical Commentary, edited by Raymond E. Brown, S.S., Joseph a Fitzmyer, S.J., and Roland E. Murphy, O. Carm., 1982.
St. Michael Church website.
https://iamjesus.net/traditional-stations-of-the-cross/https://www.emporis.com/buildings/136851/st-michael-church-chicago-il-usa

Photographs taken by author in February 2013; May and October 2016; June 2022.

This explanatory article may be periodically updated.

More of St. Michael Church in Old Town, Chicago? Please see:

Heavenly Messengers in Glass: Franz Mayer’s 1902 Stained-Glass Angels at St. Michael Church in Chicago’s Old Town.

The “Tricky Business” of the Caillebotte Bequest: His Last Gift to France Put the Impressionists on Museum Walls.

Gustave Caillebotte’s final legacy was his determination to preserve Impressionism through a landmark bequest that forced the French State to confront, accept, and ultimately legitimize a movement it had long resisted.

By John P. Walsh

Friends, Executors, and a Promise to Keep

Gustave Caillebotte (1848-1894) and Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919) exhibited together in the Second Impressionist Exhibition in 1876 and became lifelong friends. Just two years later, in 1878, Caillebotte appointed Renoir to be executor of his will. Now in the wake of Caillebotte’s death in 1894, Renoir and Martial Caillebotte (1853-1910), the artist’s younger brother, were resolved to carry out Caillebotte’s final wishes to the letter. The most important charge given to Caillebotte’s advocates was to persuade the French State to accept their late friend’s collection of Impressionist art that came to be known as the “Caillebotte Bequest.” These 68 paintings were the wealthy artist’s assemblage of prime Impressionist art which today provides a glittering foundation for museum collections around the world, especially the Musée d’Orsay in Paris. An exact count of the bequest varies whether based on the inventories by the estate in 1894, by art writer Gustave Geffroy (1855-1926) also in 1894 or by Renoir, Martial Caillebotte and Léonce Bénédite (1859-1925) in 1896.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir (French, 1841-1919) at Montmartre in a photograph by Martial Caillebotte around 1885.

Martial Caillebotte (1853–1910), photographer and composer, with brother Gustave Caillebotte (1848-1894), artist, collector and arts organizer.

The struggle over the Caillebotte Bequest reveals how controversial Impressionism remained in the 1890s and how Renoir and Martial Caillebotte fought for decades to secure its place in France’s national museums.

Gustave Geffroy (1855-1926) in a portrait photograph by Nadar.

Léonce Bénédite (1856 – 1925), at left, curator for the Caillebotte Bequest.

CAILLEBOTTE BEQUEST: Edouard Manet, The Balcony, 1868-69, oil on canvas, 67 3/4 x 40 1/4 inches, Musée d’Orsay, Paris.

The Collection That Challenged the Establishment

In 1894 Caillebotte’s bequest included paintings by living artists such as Camille Pissarro, Edgar Degas, Paul Cézanne, Alfred Sisley, Claude Monet, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Two artists in the collection were already dead – and both Jean Millet (1814-1875) and Édouard Manet (1832-1883) were more highly prized than the others at the time. A vast majority of Caillebotte’s more than five dozen paintings were painted and purchased before 1880.

The French government was accustomed to selecting and purchasing works for the national collection on their own initiative and looked on Caillebotte’s donation as a “tricky business” as expressed by Republican Henry Roujon, Fine Arts administrator who had only recently worked for Jules Ferry. From a wanting-to-oblige Establishment viewpoint the bequest was complicated because Caillebotte boldly stipulated that all 68 works be accepted together and earmarked as a group for entrance into the Louvre. Up to now the French State only had experience in purchasing Sisley and Renoir (“Young Girls at the Piano,” acquired in 1892) for the national collection. Moreover the acceptance of Caillebotte’s collection would change State policy to exhibit no more than three works by any artist for Caillebotte’s bequest included more paintings than that number for each artist. Although twenty years had passed since the first Impressionist exhibition in Paris in 1874, the French State had never taken much of a public interest in this diverse group of nonacademic artists. On the other side of the table as Renoir and Martial Caillebotte were primarily concerned with the State’s acceptance of the entire body of work, those living artists in the bequested collection had their concerns if they succeeded.

Henry Roujon (French, 1853-1914) in 1912.

Negotiating the Caillebotte Bequest

One antidote to this attitude of entrenchment was that the Republican French state in 1894 was halfway into its second decade of shepherding progressive policies onto France and its cultural leaders realized this must extend to a determined national support for this windfall of abstruse avant-garde artists. Following a year of negotiation with executors Renoir and the younger Caillebotte the State cut its deal. They might have refused the whole lot of them, but accepted a majority of the bequest and more than one painting of each artist. Further they formally agreed to exhibit all 40 works and they were duly hung in the Musée du Luxembourg in February 1897. In addition to two by Millet, these 38 Impressionist masterworks are today in the Musée D’Orsay. None of Caillebotte’s own paintings were included in the legacy. Protests by traditional art voices were now useless: the Impressionists, accused of “ruining young artists,” were now on national museum walls. Cézanne’s response to the inclusion of two of his paintings is forthright: “Now (William-Adolphe) Bouguereau can go to hell!” During this hard-edged contest to determine which artists and art works were included or excluded, it was not the museums that picked up the pieces but the mainly French and American collectors as well as the gallery dealers who mounted historic one-man shows for Caillebotte (at Durand-Ruel in June 1894), for Cézanne (at Ambroise Vollard in 1895) and for Monet (Durand-Ruel in May 1895).

CAILLEBOTTE BEQUEST: Claude Monet, Luncheon in the Garden, 1873-74, oil on canvas, 63 x 79 1/8 inches, Musée d’Orsay, Paris.

CAILLEBOTTE BEQUEST: Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Girl Reading, c. 1874, oil on canvas, 18 1/8 x 15 inches, Musée d’Orsay, Paris.

CAILLEBOTTE BEQUEST: Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Railroad Bridge at Chatou, 1881, oil on canvas, 21 1/4 x 25 1/2 inches. Musée d’Orsay, Paris.

CAILLEBOTTE BEQUEST: Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Study (Nude in the sunlight), 1875, oil on canvas, 31 7/8 x 25 1/2 inches. Musée d’Orsay, Paris.

CAILLEBOTTE BEQUEST: Pierre-Auguste Renoir, The Swing, 1876, oil on canvas, 36 1/2 x 28 1/2 inches. Musée d’Orsay, Paris.

CAILLEBOTTE BEQUEST: Edgar Degas, Women on the Terrace of a cafe in the Evening, 1877, pastel over monotype, 16 1/2 x 23 5/8 inches, Musée d’Orsay, Paris.

CAILLEBOTTE BEQUEST: Edgar Degas, The Chorus,1876/77, pastel over monotype, 10 5/8 x12 1/4 inches, Musée d’Orsay, Paris. In a suggested auditorium stage setting Degas depicts a group of costumed singers who perform with vivid gestures and expressions capturing the intensity of the moment and with a sense of energy and movement. Colors are warm and there is an emphasis on the effects of dramatic light as the artist uses loose brushstrokes that captures the excitementof a theatrical production. Degas’s perspective is up close and truncated which keeps the focus on the performers. https://www.artchive.com/artwork/the-chorus-edgar-degas-c-1877/ – retrieved June 14, 2025

CAILLEBOTTE BEQUEST: Edgar Degas, L’Etoile (the Star), 1876/77, pastel over monotype, 22 7/8 x 16 1/2 inches, Musée d’Orsay, Paris.

CAILLEBOTTE BEQUEST: Edgar Degas, Femme sortant du bain, vers 1876, pastel sur monotype, H. 0.16 ; L. 0.215, musée d’Orsay, Paris, France.

CAILLEBOTTE BEQUEST: Camille Pissarro, Red Roofs, Village scene, Winter Effect, 1877, oil on canvas, 21 1/2 x 15 1/4 inches, Musée d’Orsay, Paris.

CAILLEBOTTE BEQUEST: Camille Pissarro, Harvest at Montfoucault, 1876, oil on canvas, 25 1/2 x 36 1/4 inches, Musée d’Orsay, Paris.

the-vegetable-garden-with-trees-in-blossom-spring-pontoise-by-camille-pissarro-1877

CAILLEBOTTE BEQUEST: Camille Pissarro, The Vegetable Garden with Trees in Blossom, Spring, Pontoise, 1877, Oil on canvas, 25 1/2 x 31 7/8 inches, Musée d’Orsay, Paris.

CAILLEBOTTE BEQUEST: Claude Monet, Regattas at Argenteuil, c. 1872, oil on canvas, 17 3/4 x 29 1/2 inches, Musée d’Orsay, Paris.

CAILLEBOTTE BEQUEST: Alfred Sisley, Boat Races at Molesey, 1874, oil on canvas, 26 x 35 3/4 inches, Musée d’Orsay, Paris.

CAILLEBOTTE BEQUEST: Claude Monet, The Church at Vétheuil, Snow, 1878-79, oil on canvas, 20 1/2 x 28 in., Musée d’Orsay, Paris.

CAILLEBOTTE BEQUEST: Auguste Renoir, Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette, 1876, Oil on canvas, H. 131; W. 175 cm © RMN-Grand Palais (Musée d’Orsay) / Jean-Gilles Berizzi

Renoir’s Long Campaign

The settlement accepted in January 1895 and promulgated a year later was not the last word for Renoir who continued to try to fully achieve his friend’s terms. On at least two occasions – in 1904 and 1908 – the works refused by the State in 1894 were proffered to them. Both times these 28 remaining works were refused and as far as the French State was concerned the case of the Caillebotte Bequest was closed. Only by his death in 1919 were Renoir’s efforts to honor Caillebotte’s bequest to France halted (Martial had died in 1910).

The Rejected Masterpieces

In 1928, over thirty years after Caillebotte’s death and bequest, the French State dared to make a legal claim to those remaining 28 works they had rejected three times previously. Inexorably cloaked in superiority, this latest endeavor of the official art establishment revealed its opportunism as the changing winds of taste now clearly favored Impressionism. Both original executors of Caillbotte’s bequest now dead, it was left to Martial Caillebotte’s son’s widow to respond to these highly-placed administrative scratchings.

From Rejection to Worldwide Fame

Her decision: she refused to hand over these works and placed them on the open market. The “rejected” and overlooked works of the “Caillebotte Bequest” were sold to private collectors all over the world, including to Americans Albert C. Barnes (1872-1951), and H.O. Havemeyer (1847-1907) and Louisine Havemeyer (1855-1929). Many of these remainder works’ locations are unknown.

Baigneurs au repos BAthers at rest Barnes 1876 7 oil on canvas — CAILLEBOTTE BEQUEST: Bathers at rest, (Baigneurs au repos), 1876/77, oil on canvas, 32 5/16 x 39 7/8 inches, Paul Cézanne. The Barnes Foundation.

CAILLEBOTTE BEQUEST: Edgar Degas, *The Dance Lesson*, c. 1879, pastel and black chalk on three pieces of wove paper, 25 3/8 x 22 1/8/inches, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY.

SOURCES: Anne Distel, Impressionism: the First Collectors, Abrams, 1990; Anne Distel, Douglas W. Druick, Gloria Groom, Rodolphe Rapetti and Kirk Varnedoe, Gustave Caillebotte: Urban Impressionist, 1995; http://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/collections/history-of-the-collections/painting.html; http://www.philamuseum.org/exhibitions/312.html?page=2

The War for the Impressionists’ Future, 1877-1882, and the 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th Exhibitions.

The story of Gustave Caillebotte’s The Bezique Game is really the story of the Impressionist movement’s internal struggle for survival between 1877 and 1882. After the triumphant Third Impressionist Exhibition of 1877, factional disputes, especially Edgar Degas’s campaign against the “broken brush” Impressionists, fractured the group. Caillebotte ultimately engineered the Seventh Impressionist Exhibition of 1882 to reunite many of the excluded artists and restore the original vision of the movement.

Gustave Caillebotte, *The Bezique Game (Partie de bésigue)*, 1880, private collection. The Seventh Impressionist Exhibition-1882.

By John P. Walsh

The Impressionists After 1877: A Movement Begins to Fracture

In the five years between the “balanced and coherent” Third Impressionist Art Exhibition in April 1877 and the penultimate Seventh Impressionist Art Exhibition in March 1882 which included Gustave Caillebotte’s The Bezique Game, significant changes had occurred in the art world.

One major development that was especially impactful for the band of independent and ever-varying avant-garde artists known as the “impressionists” was that, after 1877, the group had fallen apart.

Caillebotte’s Triumph and the Failure of a Fourth Exhibition

The Third Impressionist Exhibition in 1877 organized by Caillebotte and Camille Pissarro (1830-1903) demonstrated the benefit of a detailed marketing plan within a professional arts organization. Caillebotte’s attempted follow-up to host an impressionist exhibition in 1878, however, failed to get off the ground.

It wasn’t for any lack of his trying. In 1877, Caillebotte could measure success in the Third show by 18-count modern artists under a new brand name, along with 230 works. Show attendance numbers were up from the first and second exhibitions almost four fold. Picture sales were up.

In less than one year, the enterprise devolved to nothing tangible. This was because of a lack of collective coherence among the artists in terms of artistic and business outlook. Seeds of destruction among this klatch of mostly young, avant-garde artists became increasingly evident during the “glorious” 1877 show.

Degas Versus the “Broken Brush” Impressionists

Caillebotte’s genius in the Third Exhibition was to know strengths to promote and problem to ignore. He avoided the veritable train wreck coming from associated artists who were antagonistic creatively by keeping them mostly literally physically apart.

The Impressionists had two major factions. One was led by classically-trained Edgar Degas (1834-1917) with his realist urban figure drawing. The other was the nonacademic, “broken-brush” innovators or strict impressionists such as Claude Monet (1840-1926) and Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919) who explored the effects of light.

For the duration of the Third Impressionist exhibition, all of Degas’s 25 beach and ballet works hung in a room of their own.

220px-Edgar_Degas_(1834-1917) — EDGAR DEGAS (1834 – 1917).

7601_m_gustave_caillebotte___french_artist — GUSTAVE CAILLEBOTTE (1848-1894).

As a business seeks popular and financial success, a caveat towards that objective for the third and upcoming 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th impressionist art shows was “the terrible Monsieur Degas.”

Although Degas had an argumentative personality, major reasons for Degas’s dispute with Caillebotte’s impresionist show were not Degas’ making. After 1877, the battle line which ensued between Degas and his group of trained artists and Monet and his nonacademic group affected every next impressionist show up to the 8th and last one in 1886.

The Salon Opens and Changes the Rules

The catalyst for the Impressionists’ artistic divisions was their different understandings of what became another major development to affect the art world and all contemporary artists.

Throughout the 1860s, the Salon continued to be anti-democratic. By the late 1870s, there was a clear trend towards a more liberalized Salon. In 1881, the French government took itself out of the Salon. Even before that, in 1878, the year of the scrapped 4th Impressionist show, the government allowed strict or “broken brush” Impressionists like Monet and Renoir to participate in their “Exhibition of Living Artists.”

Édouard Dantan, *Un Coin du Salon en 1880* (A Corner of the Salon in 1880), 1880, oil on canvas, 97.2 x 130.2 cm (38.2 x 51.2 in.). Private collection.

Biggest art show in Paris

Whatever its drawbacks, the Salon remained the biggest art show in Paris.

While Caillebotte’s Third Impressionist Exhibition in 1877 attracted 15,000 visitors in its one month run—a remarkable statistic—the Salon attracted 23,000 visitors per day.

The Salon displayed around 23x more art than the Impressionist show and attracted 50x more visitors. Opportunities for sales and new clients at one of these nineteenth-century warehouse events was immense.

In 1878, after years of fighting for greater participation in the Salon— the Salon des Refusés took place in 1863—innovative Impressionists were finally allowed to freely hang their artwork in an annual show that for hundreds of years had been the institurional enclave of the Paris art world’s elite.

Degas’s Ultimatum

Yet, In terms of the 4th impressionist art show, the bourgeois Degas devised an ingeniously small-minded idea that he presented ennobled by some principle.

Despite this historic opening of the Salon to young avant-garde artists—Monet and Renoir were in their late 30’s, Degas in his mid 40’s—the older and financially secure artist insisted that all impressionists must make a choice.

Either exhibit in the Salon or with the Impressionists.

Degas’s ultimatum was crafted to pressure the “broken brush” impressionists such as Renoir, Monet, Sisley and Cézanne to break ranks to the Salon—and likely improve their sales and reputations in a rapidly changing art market—and leave the impressionist art organization to Degas and his followers.

Degas’s wedge actually worked. By 1880, the “broken brush” impressionists were purged from the Impressionist exhibitions by their own choice to exhibit in the Salon. Though they saw no conflict with the Impressionist art organization per se that broken brush artists helped found, Degas’s ultimatum had been permitted to stand for the 4th, 5th, and 6th impressionist art shows and helped secure these Impressionist shows of 1879, 1880, and 1881 under the leadership of Degas.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir (French, 1841-1919).

Paul Cézanne (French 1839-1906) and Camille Pissarro (French, 1830-1903).

Alfred Sisley (British, born France, 1839-1899).

The Degas Years and Caillebotte’s Break

The 4th, 5th, and 6th exhibitions featured Degas and his favorite artists. It was in these Degas-led shows that the public had their first in-depth look at Mary Cassatt (1844-1926) and Paul Gauguin (1848-1903), among others.

Not all of the Impressionists’ original members and strict impressionists decided to exhibit in the Salon. Camille Pissarro and Berthe Morisot (1841-1895) chose to stay in the independent art group and continued doing so for the eight shows. (Morisot had a baby during the 4th and didn’t participate).

Gustave Caillebotte had invested his talent, reputation and resources into the independents since 1876 and continued to organize and exhibit with them in 1879 and 1880. Before the 6th show in 1881, Caillebotte himself finally broke with the Degas regime in a dispute nominally over a advertising issue.

Mary Cassatt (American, 1844 –1926) in later years.

Berthe Morisot (French, 1841-1895) in 1875.

The Bezique Game and the Politics of Card Playing

As the calendar proclaimed a new decade, new opportunities for Impressionist exhibitions began percolating in Caillebotte’s head as he painted The Bezique Game (1880) within the shifting artistic environment.

The game of Bezique is a 64-card game for two players and curiously French. In the game two singles players sit across the net to compete to 1000 points. The rest are score keepers or observers. As the game carries on, card “tricks” pile up on the table.

Some art critics viewing Caillebotte’s contemporary subject of a popular game identified the painting as a “legible and tightly ordered” image out of the long-held pictorial tradition of card playing. Yet idiomatic clichés related to card playing such as “playing one’s cards right” or “holding one’s cards close to the chest” may be read into the painting. It is one of the canvasses painted by impressionist artists during this time that relate to the Impressionist group’s recent and ongoing exhibition experiences.

Nineteenth-century art critics usually grouped together the artwork of Caillebotte and Degas, Neither artist was among the “strict” impressionists such as of Monet and Renoir. Several critics wondered aloud in the newspaper why Caillebotte would even have dealings with those “broken-brush” daubers now at the Salon with Édouard Manet.

4th (1879): Competition between Degas’s partisans and the mostly younger strict impressionists such as Claude Monet, Renoir, and others, resulted in a schism in 1879. In addition to himself, Degas recruited talented newcomers such as Mary Cassatt (1844-1926), Jean-Louis Forain (1852-1931), and Federico Zandomeneghi (1841-1917) for the 4th.

Edgar Degas, *Chevaux de course (Jockeys before the Race)*, 1869-1872, oil, essence, pastel on paper, 107 x 73 cm, 42 1/8 x 28 3/4 in., The Barber Institute of Fine Arts, University of Birmingham. The Fourth Impressionist Exhibition-1879.

Gustave Caillebotte, *The Skiffs*, 1877, oil on canvas, 88.9 x 116.2 cm (35 x 45 3/4 in.), National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. The Fourth Impressionist Exhibition-1879.

Mary Cassatt, *Femme dans une loge (Woman in a Loge)*, 1879, oil on canvas, 80.3 x 58.4 cm (31 5/8 x 23 in.), Philadelphia Museum of Art. The Fourth Impressionist Exhibition-1879.

Edgar Degas, *Miss Lola, au Cirque Fernando*, 1879, oil on canvas, 117 x 77.5 cm ( 46 x 30 1/2 in.), National Gallery, London. The Fourth Impressionist Exhibition-1879.

Claude Monet, *Jardin à Sainte-Adresse (Garden at Sainte-Adresse)*, 1867, oil on canvas, 38 5/8 x 51 1/8 in. (98.1 X 129.9 cm), The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. The Fourth Impressionist Exhibition-1879.

Jean-Louis Forain, *Café Interior*, c.1879, gouache on paper, 12 7/8 x 10 in. (32.8 x 25.5 cm). The Fourth Impressionist Exhibition-1879.

Federico Zandomeneghi, *Portrait of M. Diego Martelli*, 1879, oil of canvas, 28 3/8 x 36 1/4 in. (72 x 92 cm), Galleria D’Arte Moderna, Florence. The Fourth Impressionist Exhibition-1879.

From the Glory of 1877 to Internal Collapse

The Third Impressionist Art Exhibition held in April 1877 is known as “Caillebotte’s Exhibition.” It is the highlight of the eight Impressionist exhibitions held between 1874 and 1886. While scholars agree that the Third Impressionist Exhibition was in every sense “glorious,” the show’s euphoria was short lived. Two weeks after the show closed, as hope for picture sales grew high, there was a Constitutional crisis in the French government. The political turmoil resulted in a consolidation of Republican power defeating Royalists which led to a national economic recession. The Impressionist group, conceived and carefully built to unity by Gustave Caillebotte, resorted to squabbling as the artists jostled to survive in receding good times.

Gustave Caillebotte’s efforts for a fourth impressionist exhibition in 1878 were stymied and the next 3 exhibitions would be under Degas’s rule. In 1879 Degas exclude the “broken brish” artists Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Paul Cézanne and Alfred Sisley. In 1880, Degas cast out Claude Monet. The destructive outcome of these intramural politics was not lost on Caillebotte.

Caillebotte built the group’s brand in the Third Impressionist Art Exhibition in 1877 largely on “broken brush” impressionists nwho were excluded from Degas’s shows. Caillebotte, however, worked with Edgar Degas and his artistic coterie in 1879, 1880 and 1881. Oy was before the opening of the Sixth Impressionist Exhibition in 1881 that Caillebotte finally departed the Degas-led organization. Caillebotte cited differences on an advertising issue.

Yet Caillebotte’s nonparticipation with the Impressionists was short lived.

5th (1880): The Fifth exhibition lost Monet to the Salon which per Degas’s ultimatum excluded the figurehead through which the term “impressionism” received its label in 1874 from exhibiting with the group of independents in 1880. Other broken or free brush painters such as Camille Pissarro and Berthe Morisot did continue to exhibit in the 5^th show. Ironically, critics responded to the truncated, Degas-led show, by wondering out loud what made this Impressionist show any different than a recently liberated Salon. While Morisot and American Mary Cassatt’s artwork received especial attention and praise in the 5th show, the month-long April 1880 show also introduced important newcomers to its Paris audience such as Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) and Jean-François Raffaëlli (1850-1924).

Marie Bracquemond (1840-1916), La dame en blanc Ithe woman in white), oil on canvas, 180×100 cm. Musée de Cambrai.

Marie Bracquemond (1840-1916), Sur la terrasse à Sèvres, 1880, oil on canvas, 88 x 155 cm, Petit Palais, Geneva.

Félix Henri Bracquemond (1833-1914), Edmond de Goncourt, charcoal on canvas (original), 1880. Louvre. (This is a slightly later 1882 engraving.)

Gustave Caillebotte (1848-1894), Interior (Woman at the Window), 1880, 116×89 cm, private.

Gustave Caillebotte (1848-1894), Still Life, 1879, oil on canvas, 50×60 cm, private.

Mary Cassatt (1844-1926), Portrait of Madame J. , c. 1880, oil on canvas, 80.6×64.6 cm, The Peabody Institute, Baltimore MD.

Edgar Degas (1834-1917), Toilette, c. 1879, 21×15.9 cm. Private New York.

Edgar Degas (1834-1917), The Dance Examination, pastel and charcoal on paper, 63.4×48.2 cm, Denver Art Museum

Edgar Degas (1834-1917), The Dance Lesson, oil on canvas, 38×86.3 cm, Private Virginia.

Paul Gauguin (1848-1903), The Market Gardens of Vaugirard, c. 1879, oil on canvas, 65×100 cm, Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton MA.

Berthe Morisot (1841-1895), Summer (Young Woman By the Window), oil on canvas, 76×61 cm, Musée Fabre, Montpellier.

Berthe Morisot (1841-1895), Woman at Her Toilette, c. 1875, 60.3×80.4 cm, The Art Institute of Chicago.

Berthe Morisot (1841-1895), portrait (Young Woman Dressed for the Ball), oil on canvas, 71×54 cm, Musée d’Orsay.

Camille Pissarro (1830-1903), The Woodcutter, 1879, oil on canvas, 89×116.2 cm, Holmes à Court Gallery Australia.

Camille Pissarro (1830-1903), Autumn Path through the Woods, oil on canvas, 81×65 cm, Private Paris.

Jean-François Raffaëlli (1850-1924), Mayor and Town Counselor, oil on canvas, 53.5×73 cm, Private New York.

Henri Rouart (1833-1912), Melun (Terrace on the Banks of the Seine), oil on canvas, 46.5×65.5 cm, Musée d’Orsay.

Federico Zandomeneghi (1841-1917), Mother and Daughter, 1879, oil on canvas, 62×52 cm, Private Italy.

6th (1881): Mary Cassatt and Berthe Morisot continued their impact as the most progressive impressionists according to critics during the 6^th Impressionist show in 1881. Morisot’s Nurse and Baby was startlingly abstract to viewers of the 1881 show. Zandomeneghi’s Place d’Anvers quietly inspired artists to explore anew early Renaissance Italian mural painting. Raffaëlli, displaying over 30 works in the 6th show, made a huge impact for his realist, socially aware artwork. The 6th show’s centerpiece was Degas’ statuette of the ballet student in a fabric tutu that put impressionism in 3D and affected modern sculpture going forward. Gustave Caillebotte who had participated in the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th impressionist exhibitions (and would the 7th) as well as organized the 3rd, 4th, and 5th (and would the 7th), bowed out of participating at all in the 6th show.

Mary Cassatt (1844-1926), The Garden (Lydia Crocheting in the Garden at Marly), oil on canvas, 66×94 cm, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Mary Cassatt (1844-1926), The Cup of Tea, 1879, oil on canvas, 92.4×65.4 cm, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Edgar Degas (1834-1917), Cabaret, c. 1877, The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., (Formerly, Corcoran Gallery of Art).

Edgar Degas (1834-1917), The Little 14-Year-Old Dancer, wax statuette, c.1881, The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Author’s photograph, 2010.

Edgar Degas (1834-1917), Room in a Brothel, monotype in black ink on laid paper, 21×15.9cm, The Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University, formerly the Stanford University Museum of Art

Jean-Louis Forain (1852-1931), Loge d’actrice, 1880, watercolor with gouache, 28×23 cm, private Paris.

J.-B. Armand Guillaumin (1841-1927), Quai de la Rapée, oil on canvas,50×79 cm, Private Paris.

Berthe Morisot (1841-1895), Nurse and Baby, 1880, oil on canvas, 50.2 x 61 cm, Private New York.

Camille Pissarro (1830-1903), Thatched Cottages at Val Hermé, 54×64.7 cm, private.

Jean-François Raffaëlli (1850-1924), Les déclassés (Les buveurs d’abstinthe), oil on canvas, 110.2×110.2 cm, Private.

Federico Zandomeneghi (1841-1917), La place d’anvers, 1880, oil on canvas, 100×135 cm, Galleria d’arte moderna Ricci Oddi Piacenza.

Reviving the Seventh Impressionist Exhibition: Caillebotte and Paul Durand-Ruel

The 32-year-old Caillebotte looked to a retro-style vision for an Impressionist Art Exhibition in 1882. His emerging partner was 51-year-old Impressionist art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel (1831-1922).

The changing art market in the 1870s had taken a financial toll on the art dealer’s modern art business. Durand-Ruel re-tooled his dealership to focus not on large-scale group shows but small shows of individual artists. Overall the French economy had sunk into hard times and big shows cost more money. Following the disastrous Hôtel Drouot auction in 1875—which Durand-Ruel believed was an attempt by his critics to discredit him as an art dealer—the well-stocked Impressionist art dealer reluctantly agreed to go forward with Caillebotte’s exhibition plan for 1882. Caillebotte convinced the dealer that the Seventh show would earn a small profit.

The struggle between Degas’s faction and Caillebotte’s vision for the Impressionist movement played out through the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Impressionist Exhibitions, culminating in the partial reunification of the movement in 1882.

P.A.-Renoir, A Luncheon at Bougival, 1881, The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C. The Seventh Impressionist Exhibition – 1882.

Reuniting the “Broken Brush” Impressionists

Caillebotte’s main hook was to re-integrate the excluded “broken brush” or “strict” impressionists including Renoir and Claude Monet. Degas and his faction of artists including Mary Cassatt stayed away from the Seventh Impressionist exhibition though Paul Gauguin was represented. Also missing was the artist of Aix, Paul Cézanne, who was experimenting with volumes in the south of France. Cézanne would not be seen in a Paris art show until 1895 when a huge body of his work was featured in a landmark retrospective exhibition at Ambroise Vollard’s gallery.

Caillebotte’s first move was to secure the popular Renoir for the upcoming March 1882 show. Renoir sent 24 new works, including his iconic large-format A Luncheon at Bougival (Un déjeuner à Bougival). Durand-Ruel insisted on a standardized presentation, including simple white frames for every work. In addition to Monet and Renoir, the seventh show hailed a triumphant return for Alfred Sisley. Camille Pissarro displayed several paintings of peasant girls. His tiny pseudo-pointillist brushstrokes overlaid with occasional dabs of thicker paint, built up an uneven surface that integrated the figure and background which worked to visually mimic the textures of the sitter’s wool clothing.

Caillebotte, “Rising Road (Chemin Montant).” 1881. The Seventh Impressionist Art Exhibition-1882.

Caillebotte’s Contribution to the Seventh Exhibition

Caillebotte sent 17 works to the show. The Bezique Game (Partie de bésigue) painted in 1880, was joined by Rising Road (Chemin Montant) painted in 1881. This latter work’s path hardly rises—a feature that contributed to the canvas’s mystery. The question was asked whether it was a reprise of the “enhanced perspective” that aggravated critics in 1876 when they saw it in The Floor Scrapers.

Rising Road is painted with a free handling of colors in the loose brushwork style of Monet and Renoir whose closer re-acquaintance Caillebotte made. One critic poked fun at the painting’s mysterious pair as viewers wondered with him who is “the conjugal couple…seen from the back” ? Their identities and location are uncertain although speculation has put Caillebotte in the painting with his lifelong companion Charlotte Berthier.

Rising Road (Chemin Montant) has had only two owners since 1881. It sold in 2003 for nearly $7 million ($6,727,500) at Christie’s in New York City,

7th (1882): Gustave Caillebotte and Impressionist art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel organized the exhibition which marked the triumphant return of the broken-brush or strict Impressionists, such as Claude Monet, Alfred Sisley, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. In many ways it was Renoir’s wide-ranging artwork that was the star of the seventh show.

Gustave Caillebotte, *Balcon (Balcony)*, 1880, oil on canvas, 26 1/4 x 24 in. (68 x 61 cm). Private Collection, Paris. The Seventh Impressionist Exhibition-1882.

Paul Gauguin, *A la Fenêtre, nature morte (At the Window, Still Life)*,1881, oil on canvas, 7.5 x 10.625 in (19 x 27 cm), Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rennes. The Seventh Impressionist Exhibition-1882.

Jean-Baptiste-Armand Guillaumin (1841-1927), *Paysage (fin octobre) (Landscape, End of October)*, c, 1876, oil on canvas, 17 7/8 x 48 1/8 in. (180 x 123 cm), Nasjonalgallereit, Oslo. The Seventh Impressionist Exhibition-1882.

Claude Monet (1840-1926), *Soleil couchant, sur la Seine, effet d’hiver (Sunset on the Seine, Winter Effect)*, 1880, oil on canvas, 39 3/8 x 59 7/8 (100 x 152 cm), Musée du Petit Palais, Paris. The Seventh Impressionist Exhibition-1882.

Camille Pissarro, *Jeune paysanne prenant son café, (Young Peasant Woman Drinking Her Coffee)*, 1881, oil on canvas, 65.3 × 54.8 cm (25 11/16 × 21 9/16 in.), The Art Institute of Chicago. The Seventh Impressionist Exhibition-1882.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir, *Jongleuses au Cirque Fernando, (Jugglers/acrobats at the Cirque Fernando)*, 1879, oil on canvas, 131.2 × 99.2 cm (51 ½ × 39 1/16 in.), The Art Institute of Chicago. The Seventh Impressionist Exhibition-1882.

Alfred Sisley, *Saint-Mammès, temps gris (Saint-Mammès, Cloudy Weather)*, c. 1880, oil on canvas, 21 5/8 x 29 1/8 in. (54.8 x 74 cm), Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The Seventh Impressionist Exhibition-1882.

Claude Monet, *Bouquet de soliels (Bouquet of Sunflowers)*, c. 1880, oil on canvas, 39 3/4 x 32 in. (101 x 81.3 cm), Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. The Seventh Impressionist Exhibition-1882.

In 1882, Caillebotte partnered with dealer Paul Durand-Ruel to revive the Impressionist organization. The Seventh Impressionist Exhibition reunited Monet, Renoir, Sisley, and other excluded artists. The exhibition represented Caillebotte’s attempt to restore the broader coalition that had made the Impressionists successful in 1877.

Sources:
Charles Moffett, The New Painting, 1986.
Anne Distel, Urban Impressionist, 1995.
Ross King, The Judgment of Paris: The Decade that Gave Us Impressionism, 2006.
John Milner, The Studios of Paris, 1990.
Alfred Werner, Degas Pastels, 1998.
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The Architect of Impressionist Success: Gustave Caillebotte and the 2nd and 3rd Exhibitions of 1876 and 1877.

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FEATURE image: Gustave Caillebotte, Paris street; a rainy day (Rue de Paris, Temps de pluie), 1877, The Art Institute of Chicago. Caillebotte submitted his painting to the Third Impressionist Art Exhibition held in Paris in 1877.

Gustave Caillebotte was not merely an important Impressionist painter but a crucial organizer, strategist, and financial supporter whose participation in the Second Impressionist Exhibition of 1876 and leadership in the Third Impressionist Exhibition of 1877 helped transform Impressionism from a loose collection of artists into a more coherent and successful movement.

The first Impressionist exhibition was held in Paris in 1874. Gustave Caillebotte (1848-1894) did not exhibit with the Impressionists in that watershed show. In 1875 the 27-year-old Caillebotte divided a more than two-million-franc inheritance with his older half-brother Alfred (1834-1896) who was a Catholic priest and younger brother Martial (1853-1910).

Henri Rouart (1833-1912) who was of the same high-class circle as his neighbor Gustave Caillebotte was one of the two signatures on a formal invitation to Caillebotte inviting him to exhibit in the Second Impressionist Exhibition in 1876. The other signatory was Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919).

Caillebotte accepted and sent eight paintings including his famous The Floor Scrapers (Les raboteurs de parquet) that today hangs in the Museé D’Orsay.

Gustave Caillebotte, Les raboteurs de parquet (The Floor Scrapers), 1875, oil on canvas, 102 x 146.5 cm (40.2 × 57.7 in.). It was originally bestowed by Caillebotte at his death in 1894 to the Musée du Luxembourg and, in 1929, transferred to the Musée du Louvre. In 1947, it was moved to the Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume, and in 1986, brought to the Musée d’Orsay in Paris.

Rejected by the Salon

The Impressionists were not purists to their collective cause and to varying degrees many of them, if reluctantly, also exhibited in the French Government’s huge annual exhibition known as the Salon. Despite its attempts at modernizing its policies and art stock, the Salon remained a conservative venue. While The Floor Scrapers of 1875 had been rejected by the Salon that year, it was exhibited in the Second Impressionist exhibition in 1876.

Artwork called “vulgar” and “leftist”

In addition to its subject matter and artificially enhanced perspective, The Floor Scrapers was called “vulgar” and “leftist” by critics. This was because the painting commutes the nude—a traditional academic subject—into the Impressionist specialty of a modern life subject.

The floor scrapers in the painting are not removing old wax as might be first suspected. Their efforts show them working in a new building where they are preparing the wood by inducing its buckling with water and scraping it smooth.

Gustave Caillebotte, Raboteurs de parquets (The Floor Scrapers), 1876, oil on canvas, 80 x 100 cm (31.5 × 39.375 in.).

The 6 other paintings sent by Caillebotte to the 1876 2nd Impressionist exhibition:

**Gustave Caillebotte, *Jeune homme jouant du piano (Young man Playing the Piano)*, 1876, oil on canvas, 80 x 166 cm (31.5 x 45.625 in.). Private collection.**

**Gustave Caillebotte, *Déjeuner (Lunch)*, 1876, oil on canvas, 80 x 166 cm (31.5 x 45.625 in.). Private collection.**

**Gustave Caillebotte, *Jeune Homme à sa fenêtre (Young Man at His Window)*, 1876, oil on canvas, 116.2 x 81 cm (45 3/4 x 31 7/8 in.). J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.**

**Gustave Caillebotte, *Woman under a tree* (*Femme sous un arbre*), 1872-73, oil on canvas, 46 x 38 cm. Private collection.**

**Gustave Caillebotte, *Jardin à Yerres* (*Garden at Yerres*), 1876, 59 x 82 cm. Private collection.**

**Gustave Caillebotte, *Jardin à Yerres* (*Garden at Yerres*), 1876, 65 x 92 cm**

Gustave Caillebotte’s Dinner Invitation Leads to the Exquisite THIRD IMPRESSIONIST EXHIBITION of 1877.

In early 1877 Caillebotte and Camille Pissarro organized a pivotal gathering of leading modern painters to discuss the future of French art and a third exhibition. Caillebotte selected the venue, coordinated the exhibition, and helped create the most balanced and coherent of the eight Impressionist exhibitions.

Gustave Caillebotte, *Rue Halévy, sixth floor view* (*Rue Halévy, vue d’un sixième étage*), 1878. Private collection.

Richard R. Brettell, chair in Art and Aesthetics at the University of Texas at Dallas, states plainly that in January or February 1877 a soirée of seven male artists constituted what was “arguably the most important dinner party of painters held in the nineteenth century.”

The reason for this social occasion was all business—specifically, to ponder and discuss the future of French modern art. It was hosted in the well-appointed Paris apartment of fellow artist Gustave Caillebotte (1848-1894) on Rue Miromesnil in the Faubourg Saint- Honoré in Paris.

**Richard R. Brettell. For much of the 1980’s, Brettell was Searle Curator of European Painting at The Art Institute of Chicago.** Fair Use.

The clubby dinner idea and its invitation to artists ranging in age from 28-year-old Caillebotte to 49-year-old Pissarro was the initiative of those two arists as evidenced in a surviving letter from Caillebotte to Pissarro. In the letter, haute bourgeois Caillebotte invites sometime anarchist and socialist Camille Pissarro (1830-1903) to this smart-set gathering and shares with Pissarro an advance guest list.

Monday night dinner of Impressionists

Five of the greatest avant-garde painters of their generation joined Caillebotte and Pissarro on the next Monday night. They were: Edgar Degas (1834-1917), Claude Monet (1840-1926), Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919), Alfred Sisley (1839-1899), and Édouard Manet (1832-1883), “the dean” of modern artists. If Gustave Courbet (1819-1877) was not in self-imposed exile in Switzerland for being unwilling to pay a heavy indemnity to the French Government and Paul Cézanne (1839-1906) was not creating misunderstood masterpieces even by avant-garde standards, the tally in Caillebotte’s suite of rooms would still fit Richard Brettell’s description.

Caillebotte’s aim was direct. He wanted to facilitate frank and fruitful discussion among these artists to set an agenda and strategy for the future of French modern painting. Their plans included a third exhibition of their so-called “new painting.” A likely agenda item was marketing for these modern artists’ first exhibition that was advertised as “Impressionist.” Such is the an ambiguous moniker of descriptive iconography and critical valuation that endured.

Modern art show on the new Paris Boulevards

Caillebotte selected the venue for the April 1877 show. It was a five-room luxury apartment in the heart of Baron Haussmann’s newly-constructed Paris. The capital’s boulevards became a symbol of French wealth, modernity, and prestige.

Caillebotte’s organizational methods worked. The Third Impressionist Exhibition is judged to be “the most balanced and coherent” of the eight exhibitions held between 1874 and 1886. Gustave Caillebotte contrived, solicited and arranged for what he wanted to see as a “democratic” exhibition of 230 works representing 18 artists. In its 30-day run, the exhibition attracted 500 attendees per day.

The Third Impressionist Exhibition featured 230 works by 18 artists and drew significantly larger audiences than previous shows. **Caillebotte exhibited major works including Paris Street: A Rainy Day, one of the masterpieces of Impressionism.**

**Gustave Caillebotte, *Paris street; a rainy day* (*Rue de Paris, Temps de pluie*), 1877, The Art Institute of Chicago.**

Caillebotte sent six of his paintings to the show including his iconic Paris Street: A Rainy Day. It hangs today in The Art Institute of Chicago though in 2012 and until January 20, 2013 it was loaned out to the Musée d’Orsay in Paris.

Brettell thinks it is fair to say that Caillebotte had just one notable set back during this third exhibition affair—the young art show producer and artist was unable to convince Édouard Manet to “desert the Salon and join forces with the Impressionists” to exhibit with them.

The 5 other paintings sent by Caillebotte to the 1877 3rd Impressionist exhibition:

**Gustave Caillebotte, *Le Pont De L’Europe*, 1876, oil on canvas, 125 x 181 cm, Petit Palais/Musée d’art moderne, Geneva, Switzerland.**

**Gustave Caillebotte, *Portraits à la campagne*, 1876. oil on canvas, 95 × 111 cm (37.4 × 43.7 in.), Musée Baron Gérard, Bayeux.**

**Gustave Caillebotte, *Portrait de Madame Caillebotte* (*The Artist’s Mother*), 1877, Private Collection.**

**Gustave Caillebotte, *Portraits dans un intérieur* (*Portraits in an Interior*), 1877, oil on canvas, 46 x 56 cm (18 1/8 x 22 in.). Private Collection, New York.**

**Gustave Caillebotte, *Peintres en bâtiments* (*House Painters*), 1877, 89 x 116 cm, Private Collection, Paris.**

Caillebotte’s role extended beyond painting to leadership, diplomacy, planning, and promotion of the Impressionist cause. The success of the 1877 exhibition was largely due to his vision and organizational abilities.

Sources:
The New Painting: Impressionism 1874-1886, 1986, Charles S. Moffet.

Gustave Caillebotte: Urban Impressionist, 1995, Anne Distel, editor.

https://gw.geneanet.org/pacret?lang=en&n=caillebotte&oc=0&p=alfred

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Chicago played a uniquely important role in the American reception, collecting, exhibition, and public celebration of Pablo Picasso’s art, while the city’s museums, collectors, and cultural institutions helped build one of the strongest Picasso legacies outside Europe.

The 2013 exhibition reveals that Chicago was not merely a collector of Picasso’s art but an active participant in shaping his American reputation, fostering a century-long relationship that helped establish modern art within the cultural life of the United States.

Robert Allerton, a museum trustee since 1918, began to acquire Picasso drawings in 1923 with the sole purpose of donating them to the museum. Sketch of a young woman was Allerton’s first Picasso drawing purchase and museum donation in 1923 purchased in Chicago from Albert Roullier Galleries.

By the end of 1906 Picasso stopped painting and instead started to fill sketchbooks for a new major composition: Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (1907) today in The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Just before leaving Paris in September 1920, Picasso made a series of drawings of the Greek myth of the abduction of Hercules’ bride Deianira by the centaur Nessus. With this, Picasso became fascinated with Greek mythology and continued to make artwork using its themes.

Paintings and drawings by Picasso in winter 1909-10 continued to explore Cubism as it related to the human face and figure and its surroundings.

Olga married Picasso on July 12, 1918, at the Russian Orthodox Cathedral in Paris. On February 4, 1921, she gave birth to their son Paulo (1921-1975). After that, Olga and Picasso’s relationship deteriorated though they never divorced. Olga died in Cannes in 1955.

Picasso transforms the bullfighting theme where the half-man and half-bull Minotaur is the aggressor in the ring terrorizing a horse.

Dora Maar (French, 1907-1997) met Picasso in 1936 at the Café des Deux Magots in Paris. Her liaison with Picasso ended in 1943.

Gilot was lover and muse to Picasso from 1943 to 1953. In the early 1990s I met Françoise Gilot accompanied by her husband, Jonas Sauk (1914-1995), when she spoke at the Alliance Française de Chicago. That evening Gilot made it perfectly clear upfront that she was not going to talk about Picasso.

Jacqueline Roque was muse and second wife of Pablo Picasso. Their marriage lasted 11 years until his death, during which time he created over 400 portraits of her, more than any of Picasso’s loves.

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The bell tower of St. Michael Church in Chicago’s Old Town at 1633 N. Cleveland Avenue. From 1869 to 1885, this church tower was the tallest building in Chicago. It was surpassed by the old Board of Trade Building.

Built on land donated by successful German-born brewer, businessman, and Chicago alderman Michael Diversey (1810–1869).

In 1876, five years after the Great Chicago Fire that ravaged the city, the rebuilt St. Michael Church raised five new bells cast by McShane Company into the tower. The four-sided clock was installed in 1888. Atop the steeple, a twenty-four-foot-tall cross weighs over one ton.

The church was gutted by the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, leaving only the exterior red brick walls. It was rapidly rebuilt and rededicated using those same walls in 1873.

The Main Altar of the Angels, dating from 1902, is a cacophony of German-style wood carving whose immense weight required the building of its own foundation.

A peaceful, breathtaking sanctuary in the middle of a bustling neighborhood.

A mosaic of Saint Michael the Archangel (above) in the floor at the entrance of the church. “Archangel” is a title that signifies he is the leader of all God’s angels.

Detail of the Main Altar retable depicts St. Michael the archangel in the traditional iconography of armor with sword and shield casting Satan out of Heaven by God’s command. St. Michael the Archangel is the patron saint of soldiers, police, and doctors.

The stunning stained glass was crafted by the famous Mayer of Munich in Germany.

Ceiling mural.

Original Pulpit.

Deep-Rooted Symbolism

As with other American church building adaptations of earlier European architectural styles, the use of Romanesque rounded arches and corbels accentuated the use of Gothic-style glass in Chicago’s Old Town Roman Catholic church.

Pietà, copy of a 16th-century Swabian-style artwork made around 1913.

Emotional Realism

Side altar honors Mary, Mother of Perpetual Help.

The Stations of the Cross at St. Michael Church

St. Alphonsus Liguori and the Modern Stations

Scholar, Bishop, and Founder

The Redemptorists and St. Michael Church

A Living Tradition of Devotion

Conclusion

The Rise of German Chicago

The Age of Deutschtum

The End of an Era

A Lasting Legacy

More of St. Michael Church in Old Town, Chicago? Please see:

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Gustave Caillebotte’s final legacy was his determination to preserve Impressionism through a landmark bequest that forced the French State to confront, accept, and ultimately legitimize a movement it had long resisted.

Friends, Executors, and a Promise to Keep

The struggle over the Caillebotte Bequest reveals how controversial Impressionism remained in the 1890s and how Renoir and Martial Caillebotte fought for decades to secure its place in France’s national museums.

The Collection That Challenged the Establishment

Negotiating the Caillebotte Bequest

Renoir’s Long Campaign

The Rejected Masterpieces

From Rejection to Worldwide Fame

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The Impressionists After 1877: A Movement Begins to Fracture

Caillebotte’s Triumph and the Failure of a Fourth Exhibition

Degas Versus the “Broken Brush” Impressionists

The Salon Opens and Changes the Rules

Biggest art show in Paris

Degas’s Ultimatum

The Degas Years and Caillebotte’s Break

The Bezique Game and the Politics of Card Playing

From the Glory of 1877 to Internal Collapse

Reviving the Seventh Impressionist Exhibition: Caillebotte and Paul Durand-Ruel

The struggle between Degas’s faction and Caillebotte’s vision for the Impressionist movement played out through the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Impressionist Exhibitions, culminating in the partial reunification of the movement in 1882.

Reuniting the “Broken Brush” Impressionists

Caillebotte’s Contribution to the Seventh Exhibition

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Rejected by the Salon

Artwork called “vulgar” and “leftist”

The 6 other paintings sent by Caillebotte to the 1876 2nd Impressionist exhibition:

Gustave Caillebotte’s Dinner Invitation Leads to the Exquisite THIRD IMPRESSIONIST EXHIBITION of 1877.

Monday night dinner of Impressionists

Modern art show on the new Paris Boulevards

The Third Impressionist Exhibition featured 230 works by 18 artists and drew significantly larger audiences than previous shows. Caillebotte exhibited major works including Paris Street: A Rainy Day, one of the masterpieces of Impressionism.

The 5 other paintings sent by Caillebotte to the 1877 3rd Impressionist exhibition:

Caillebotte’s role extended beyond painting to leadership, diplomacy, planning, and promotion of the Impressionist cause. The success of the 1877 exhibition was largely due to his vision and organizational abilities.

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**Side altar honors Mary, Mother of Perpetual Help.**

The Third Impressionist Exhibition featured 230 works by 18 artists and drew significantly larger audiences than previous shows. **Caillebotte exhibited major works including Paris Street: A Rainy Day, one of the masterpieces of Impressionism.**